A mate in 4 is four of your moves against three replies, ending in checkmate whatever your opponent does. At that length you cannot check every line, so these puzzles train the discipline of calculating only forcing moves and keeping the board clear in your head. Every puzzle comes from a real game and is close to your puzzle rating. Mates this long are much rarer in real games than mates in one to three, and rarer still among easier puzzles, so expect fewer of them here than on the shorter mate pages.
A mate in 2 is often one clever move and an easy finish. A mate in 4 usually has a plan with stages: break open the king's cover, drive the king into the open or into a corner, then bring the last piece in for the mate. Many of these puzzles include a sacrifice, and many are king hunts, where a run of checks pulls the king away from its defenders.
The other big change is that the opponent has three chances to defend instead of one. Each reply is a place where a line you like can fail. That is why the strongest solvers prefer lines made of checks: each check leaves the defender very few answers, and sometimes only one.
This position is from a real game. White has a king on f7, a queen on b5 and pawns on d4, e6 and h4. Black has a king on h8, a pawn on g7 and two queens, on e4 and b1. Black is a queen ahead, so White cannot afford a single quiet move. White mates in four: 1.Qe8+ Kh7 2.Qg8+ Kh6 3.Qxg7+ Kh5 4.Qg5#.
Every black reply in that line is the only legal move, which is what makes it possible to calculate to the end once you see it. The first check comes along the back rank, and with g8 covered and g7 blocked by Black's own pawn, the king must go to h7. The second check is protected by the white king on f7, which also covers g6, so the king has to climb to h6. The third takes the g-pawn with check, again protected by the king, and pushes the king to h5. In the final position the queen on g5 is defended by the pawn on h4, it covers g4, g6 and h6, and it also defends the h4 pawn, so the king cannot take it. Two black queens stand on the board and neither can help.
The lesson is that material does not matter in a forced line. A mate against the side with more pieces is common, because that side was often busy making threats of its own.
Start from the end. Before you calculate, look at where the king could be mated: which squares near it you control, which pieces could give the final check, and what would have to change for it to work. Having a target picture turns a search into a route.
Then list your checks, captures and threats, in that order, and follow the most forcing first. At each step find the defender's most stubborn reply, not the one you hope for. If a line branches into several replies, each branch needs its own mate, which is usually a sign to look for a more forcing first move.
Finally, walk the line again from the start, piece by piece. Most errors in long lines are not bad ideas but a piece remembered on the square it left, or a square you thought was covered by a piece that has since moved.
The first is playing the first move on instinct and hoping the rest will appear. In the trainer a wrong move counts the puzzle as a miss, so decide the whole line first. The second is overlooking a check the defender can give in reply, which breaks the rhythm of your attack. The third is chasing a line that wins a lot of material but stops short of mate. The puzzle only accepts the mating line.
Take your time; rated puzzles have no clock. After each of your moves, the opponent's reply is played on the board, which lets you check your calculation as you go. If you are stuck, the hint first shows which piece to move, then the move. Once solved, the full line appears beside the board, so play it through again in your head.
If four moves feels like too much, build up through mate in 2 and mate in 3. When mate in 4 is comfortable, try mate in 5 or more. For the patterns long mates finish with, see the checkmate patterns page.
For mixed tactics at your level, use Puzzle Training, and for fast recognition, Puzzle Storm. To repeat a fixed set until the ideas are automatic, try the Woodpecker Method. Elo Maxing rates you on every tactical motif and serves the weakest next, and Pattern Drill builds practice from the patterns your own games show you miss. To find where calculation goes wrong in your own games, read how to review your chess games.
A position where you can force checkmate in four moves, whatever your opponent plays in between.
Long forced mates are much rarer in real games than short ones, and rarer still in easier positions. The puzzles here are close to your rating, but there are fewer of them than mates in one to three.
Yes. After each of your moves, the opponent's reply from the puzzle is played on the board and you continue from there.
No. Rated puzzles have no clock, so you can calculate for as long as you need. Puzzle Storm is the timed mode.
Longer mate puzzles follow the puzzle's own solution line. If your move is not accepted, look again for the most forcing continuation.